Six killed, 17 injured in road accidents in HP

Shimla, Nov 12 (UNI) Six people were killed and 17 injured in three separate accidents in Himachal Pradesh during the last 24 hrs.

Three people were killed and 16 injured, six of them seriously, after the speeding private mini bus overturned near Parwanoo's Sector six, Parwanoo's Additional Commissioner Himanshu Chaudhary said today.

Mr Chaudhary said the the driver of the bus failed to control the speeding bus that overturned, killing three passengers and injuring sixteen others.

Six of the seriously injured had been referred to PGI, Chandigarh, while the remaining were undergoing treatment at a government hospital at Parwanoo, he said.

The bus was on its way to Parwanoo from Solan when the accident occurred.

The additional commissioner said that the district administration has announced immediate cash relief to the dead and the injured in the accident.

In an accident in Shimla district, a driver of the Himachal Road Transport Corporation (HRTC) died on the spot after the bus he was reversing fell into a gorge near Kotgarh, about 110 km from here late last night.

The police said the driver had asked all the passengers to alight before reversing the vehicle, which rolled down into a gorge at about 2130 hrs, killing the driver, identified as Dhayan Singh.

A report from Hamirpur said two people were killed and another injured when their jeep fell into a 150-foot deep gorge near Sachuhi village of the district today.

The three, were returning after attending a marriage at Sandhol village of Mandi district.

The police said the dead have been identified as Sonu, 25, of Sandhol village and Baldev, alias Babloo, of Jukhala village of Bilaspur district.

The jeep driver, identified as Vijay Kumar, was injured in the accident, the police said, adding that cause of the accident was, however, not immediately known.

The bodies of the dead were handed over to their relatives after post mortem.